Novità

Roland Sachsenhofer
This project has been waiting long enough, now the time has come! The "shell", seen here, is quickly put together, the glued seams are still wet, so to speak. I plan to show the A90 in a proper dio - gliding just above the water!

Michael Kohl
One one those weird sovjet constructions. Will be fun to follow.

Roland Sachsenhofer
Oh yes, Weird and.... big. That must have been a massive vehicle!

Ben M
watching

Skyhiker
Neat

Roland Sachsenhofer
Feel very welcome! 🙂

Treehugger
I just remembered, I have this kit in my stash.
Are those windows on the side? Like on passenger jets?

Roland Sachsenhofer
If this was some kind of passenger aircraft, I would book a flight for sure. 🙂
I will drill the windows and fill them with Krystal Klear.

Raz1
No windows, apparently.

See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-90_Orlyonok

Dave Flitton
Watching!!

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you both for interest and comments! Well, I will think over with that windows.... Thank you for the link!

Skyhiker
Looks to me like there are windows in that Wikipedia photo.

Raz1
I stand corrected. I had originally not seen the windows. Thanks, Skyhiker.

Plenty of interior photos here: flickr.com/photos/la..597/with/45021731405

And the last surviving example (per Wikipedia) is here: museum-vmf.ru/

Even though the appropriate page won't load here, a photo displays in the top-of-page banner rotation.

Skyhiker
Wow, those interior shots are incredible.

Roland Sachsenhofer
I agree, what pictures! The question of the windows should now also be answered "from the inside" as well. Thanks for these excellent links, mates!

Roland Sachsenhofer
A few new pictures here too: the finished pre-shading has shown a few touch-up needs, but tomorrow I want to be able to apply the surface colour!

Michael Kohl
Probably too late, but that project would have been perfect to try a levitation display.
amazon.de/Magnetic-L..aps%2C127&sr=8-3

Roland Sachsenhofer
I think it's a really wonderful idea.... A few Star Wars themes are in the making, possibly here: I would also like to see a Tie-Fighter hovering over this base.

A nice encounter - magnets are actually being used in this project! Since I want to show the "Orlyonok" gliding over a water surface as well as standing still, I have prepared two versions of the props. In order to be able to change them stably, I attached magnets to the axis of rotation. The one on the engine was inserted through a hole from the outside. It sits on the tip of a toothpick, which has been inserted through the hole in the inside of the engine. The magnet now sits exactly in the centre of the engine diameter. The second magnet only had to be glued to the two ends of the propeller axles. Now, it works perfectly with a soft "click"! 🙂

Łukasz Gliński
Interesting project, will follow

Robert Podkoński
Following for sure. It is a great idea to use magnets.

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you mates for interest ans motivation!

Roland Sachsenhofer
The Oryonok still looks a bit 'artificial', but in principle shows its surface colours, which will hopefully breathe a little life into it, are the traces of use and wear that I will still apply. The windows on the fuselage will of course also be drilled out and filled with clear white glue.
At the same time, the water base is now being worked on. This time I'm using a light filler on a polystyrene base as a base for this, with Vallejo water gel on top.
The magnetically interchangeable ahrwerk and propeller have worked - which is great news of course!

Skyhiker
That's moving along fast.

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you mate!

Roland Sachsenhofer
A few pictures of the water base in the making: I'm using a new material to build up the water surface. This so-called 'light filler' dries within 24 hours and is easy to shape with the appropriate tools - here with a simple brush

Robert Podkoński
Just a suggestion, Roland - an ekranoplan flying above the sea 'irons out' the waves under its wings in a characteristic manner:
oldmachinepress.com/..rlyonok-ekranoplans/

Roland Sachsenhofer
Robert, thank you for that important hint, I wasn't aware of this!

Roland Sachsenhofer
....and thank you for the excellent link as well!

Robert Podkoński
I am just happy to be of any assistance to you, Roland 🙂

Roland Sachsenhofer
Robert, your hint made me to rethink and rebuild the whole thing a bit: the strip of water flown over is no longer deeply furrowed, but has been flattened - the picture material helped a lot.
You can see the whole thing now primed with Tamiya acrylic paint and coloured once, tomorrow transparent water gel from AK will be applied...

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍

Roland Sachsenhofer
Appreciated! 🙂

Robert Podkoński
Water looks already like on these photos, Roland. I cannot wait to see the plane levitating above the waves...

Roland Sachsenhofer
That´s motivating! 🙂

gorby
The water effect is very convincing!

Neuling
Yes

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you mates! Very appreciated!

Roland Sachsenhofer
Before I continue with pictures of the water base that was completed today, I'll show you a few snapshots of the completed 'Orlyonok'. As you know, I made it with interchangeable modules for both a land and a flying display; here you can see the 'land version'.
Tomorrow there will certainly be an opportunity to catch the aircraft flying by and photograph it in flight. 🙂

Skyhiker
Looks fantastic!

Ben M
very realistic. the weathering and the land diorama came out perfectly. can't wait to see it on the water!

gorby
I didn't know it had an undercarriage. The photos make it look like a very impressive beast.

Robert Podkoński
Fantastic job, Roland! (@gorby - it should be rather caller a beaching gear, imho, as it was used only to maneuvre on terra firma).

gorby
Thanks Robert.

Roland Sachsenhofer
Mates, a great 'thank you' for your kind and motivating words! Very appreciated of course!

Zbynek Honzik
Beautiful, Roland! 👍
The pace at which you are able to build beautiful models is truly incredible!

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you for your words - that makes me feel ...good! 🙂

Dietmar Bogatzki
Great build and paintjob of another casparian sea monster 👍

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you very much, Dietmar!

Roland Sachsenhofer
Yesterday the A.90 Orlyonok thundered in front, here are a couple of pictures of this event! 🙂 I added a few things to the kit, such as the prominent framework in front of the cockpit, which I built "on sight" with suitable wire. I haven't been able to find out what it's for - aerials, windscreen wipers/cleaning? - but I know that it contributes quite prominently to the appearance. I also added the various aerials on the fuselage and engine.
Thanks again for the hint about the 'ironed' water behind and under the engine, that was an important tip and came in time, thanks to Robert!

Robert Podkoński
🙂

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you Robert 🙂

Roland Sachsenhofer
Yesterday the A.90 Orlyonok thundered in front, here are a couple of pictures of this event! 🙂 I added a few things to the kit, such as the prominent framework in front of the cockpit, which I built "on sight" with suitable wire. I haven't been able to find out what it's for - aerials, windscreen wipers/cleaning? - but I know that it contributes quite prominently to the appearance. I also added the various aerials on the fuselage and engine.
Thanks again for the hint about the 'ironed' water behind and under the engine, that was an important tip and came in time, thanks to Robert!

Robert Podkoński
Looks absolutely perfect, Roland! Chapeau bas! (I am happy that I have contributed a bit to this effect 😉 )

gorby
WOW! Fantastic display!

Neuling
WOW! Fantastic display! 2

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you for your appreciated comments - it is of course very motivating to receive such feedback!

Landlubber Mike
Nicely done!!

The Blytonian
I wish this kit was available in my country! Thanks for showing it.

Akaidada
Nice rocket bro!

Yury
The presentation looks very impressive. Cool!

CaptGPF
Well done!

Cristian A
Absolutely awesome!!

James C
👀👍

Pepe
Looking

Alec K
Can't miss this one! Very nice start 👍

Ludvík Kružík
Good to see you, Alec. As you can guess, this is gonna be a big show. There's gonna be a lot of cutting, a lot of editing, and of course, I'll be scratching out new parts. At this point, I'm still planning the build process. But work on the model will soon be in full swing.

Pierre Pierre
very intersting transformation. Following

Ludvík Kružík
Welcome, Pierre, I'm very pleased to see your interest. I hope you find my rebuilding interesting.

The manufacturer of the Avia BH.9 model states 1/48 scale on the box. Actually the model is made in a slightly smaller scale 1/50. I don't mind that in this case. The Avia BH.10 is very similar to the Avia BH.9, but because it is a single-seat aircraft, it is smaller overall than the Avia BH.9. . So even if I build a single seat Avia BH.10 in 1/48 scale, I will be scaling down the fuselage and wing parts from the kit. I have been comparing the fuselage and wing parts to a 1/48 scale drawing of the Avia BH.10 and wondering how to scale the parts down to fit the desired shape and size.

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat, of course!

J35J
Great start! Following👍🏻

Villiers de Vos
A great project.

bughunter
Nice project! The BH-10 will fit nicely between your finished BH-9 and BH-11 👍

Ludvík Kružík
Frank, you make a good point. The Avia BH.10 will add to my collection of Avia BH series monoplanes from the 1920s. They are very interesting and modern aircraft for their time, if only because biplanes dominated the skies at that time.

Ludvík Kružík
I finished modifying the fuselage and wings to 1/48 scale.

Ludvík Kružík
I started making new parts for the model.

bughunter
Successful reshaping of kit parts 👍
Not very much left of the kit, but it looks like that way needs less work compared to a full scratch build.

Ludvík Kružík
That's right. Due to the great similarity of the fuselage and wings of both Avia's, it is easier to modify these parts than to produce completely new ones. Still, there will be a lot of work involved in building the model.
At the moment I have the basic parts roughly ready. I still have to work on them. I will have to do some puttying and sanding. And then fill in all the details.

Alec K
Nice progress. Watch, KP will release their 1/72 kit in 48 just as you finish… 😉 😄

Ludvík Kružík
I'm not really worried about that. Even if it happens, I'm fine with it. Avia BH.10 in 1/72 scale is not very accurate. And if KP goes the route of enlarging parts of the 1/72nd scale model while making a 1/48th scale model (which I think is very likely), it will transfer all the errors of the original model to the new one. Plus, I really like these "crazy" rebuilds. It's a lot of fun for me. 😉

Alec K
I fully agree, scratch builds and conversions are a lot of fun. I'll have to compare the KP kit to drawings before starting mine 👍

Ludvík Kružík
Alec, before building a model you have to choose which machine you want to build. I'm building a first production run machine, but KP's 1/72 scale kit is a second production run machine. Otherwise there were machines with special modifications. And be careful which drawing you want to use. Some drawings are not very accurate (for example the drawing from Modeler 7/1986).
I have described the basic differences between the first and second production series machines in the attached photo.

Alec K
Great, thank you! Do you have a drawing recommendation?

Ludvík Kružík
Alec, you can find a lot of useful information about Avia BH.10 on Czech Modelforum in Pavel Kloucek's overviews.
Information about machines from the first production run can be found here: modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=310&t=143236
And information about the machines of the second production series is here: modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=310&t=143254
A lot of interesting information about the Avia aircraft designed by Benes and Hajn is in this book: nasevojsko.eu/nasevo..onstrukce-Benes-Hajn

I sent you a PM about the drawings.

Alec K
Super, thank you very much.

Ludvík Kružík
I am continuing to build the model by making a new cockpit.

Ludvík Kružík
Unfortunately I only have one period photo of the cockpit, which shows the instrument panel and the right side of the cockpit.
I'm working from the drawing to create the controls and instruments on the left side of the cockpit and floor, with the help of photos of the Avie BH.11 cockpit.
Since the Avie BH.9, 10 and 11 have the same engine and very similar construction, I think most of the cockpit controls were designed very similarly, if not identically.

gorby
Very impressive work so far.

Alec K
Cockpit looks great, those instruments are superb 👍

bughunter
... and the wood looks good too!

Ludvík Kružík
Welcome my friends! Thank you for your interest and popdoru. I really appreciate it.

Ludvík Kružík
I finished the cockpit. After gluing the starboard side to the cockpit, I'll mount the cockpit to the fuselage.

Alec K
Your prop effort beats mine. I tried with sandwitched colored paper infused with resin but needed a painted color overlay. I need to try with correct colored card stock next time.

Ludvík Kružík
Making a propeller out of coloured cardboard was an experiment for me. I wondered if it would work.

Ludvík Kružík
I finished making the cockpit. Now I'm going to glue the bottom of the fuselage and then putty and sand the fuselage.

Ludvík Kružík
It was time to puttying and sanding. We'll see how many times I have to repeat this cycle.

Villiers de Vos
A lot of attention to detail. It will pay off in the end.

bughunter
I will buy shares of putty manufacturers. 😉

Ludvík Kružík
Villiers, welcome! Good to see you again.

This aeroplane is very simple and there are very few small details on it. But the few that are on it, I'll be sure to pay attention to. 😉

Bughunter,
maybe your plan to buy shares in the putty maker will pay off. At least in my case the putty maker made a profit 😄.

I know the fuselage doesn't look good with a heavy coat of putty. But the hull needed that layer of putty on the bow. I had to fill in all the joints and minor unevenness. There won't be much putty left on the hull after sanding, but since the putty shrinks as it dries, it's hard to tell ahead of time where more putty is needed and where maybe not. In this case, more is better.

Ludvík Kružík
The fuselage, wings and tail surfaces are ready for minor detailing. In the end I just needed one rough puttying, sanding, spraying surfacer, one fine puttying of minor defects, sanding again and final surfacer.

Jakub Fiala
Super! 👍

Alec K
Very nice progress 👍

bughunter
The polished surfaces looks great! 👍

TH SCALE MODELS (Thomas Haberl)
Amazing how this turnded out till now Ludvik! Biggest respect for this special project and efforts you make on it. Looking forward to the next steps 🤩

Ludvík Kružík
Mates, thank you all!
It's great to have you on board. Your support means a lot to me.

Ludvík Kružík
After a short vacation I returned to building the Avia. I haven't had much time to build it yet.

I taped the tail surfaces with masking tape so I could spray thin strips of surfacer on the ribs.
To indicate the slight sagging of the canvas on the wing surfaces that were only covered with canvas, I started scraping these surfaces very gently with a round-bladed scalpel. Once I had completed this operation on both wings, it was my turn to cover them with masking tape so that I could spray strips of surfacer on the wing ribs.

I'll add photos of the work in progress next time.

Ludvík Kružík
I started adding details to the fuselage, wings and tail surfaces.

Ludvík Kružík
I'm slowly resuming my work. I've sprayed the rib bands on the wings and added some minor detailing to the left side of the fuselage.

Ludvík Kružík
The top and side surfaces of the Avia are sprayed with the first of three camouflage colours.

Moreno Baruffini
WOOOOOOOWWW! Super!

Alec K
This will be another beauty 👍

Ludvík Kružík
Moreno Baruffini, thank you, I appreciate it.

Alec, when this Avia is finished, it will complete my collection of Avia BH-3, Avia BH-9 and Avia BH-11 monoplanes from Benes and Hajn constructors.

Villiers de Vos
Still nailed to my chair.

Ludvík Kružík
Villiers thank you for your interest.

Due to the summer season and its associated activities and the occasional babysitting of my 15 month old grandson, I have less time to build the model. Progress will be slower.

Ludvík Kružík
The upper surfaces of the Avia are already covered with tri-colour camouflage. There was no time to spraying silver paint on the lower surfaces today. At least I know what I will do next time 😄.

Villiers de Vos
Coming together nicely.

Alec K
The colors look great 👍

bughunter
The colours bring it to life!
And no worry about slower progress - family and life is very important.

Moreno Baruffini
I totally agree with Bughunter!

Ludvík Kružík
@ Villiers and Alec
Thank you for your support, it is very much appreciated.

@ bughunter and Moreno
You are right, family is important and has a higher priority than building models. Don't worry, I'm clear on this point. 😉

Ludvík Kružík
Today I had time and also the daytime temperatures dropped to a bearable limit so I took advantage of it and moved the construction a little bit again.

Ludvík Kružík
I continue building the model by making parts for the landing gear, propeller and wings. I also printed the decals with the serial numbers.

Villiers de Vos
Fantastic skills.

Robert Podkoński
Presumably, you're approaching the finish line, Ludviku 🙂

Ludvík Kružík
Mates, thank you!

Robert, it's true. Once I finish the individual assemblies, the model building and completion of the model will move forward quickly. 🙂

bughunter
Nice details on the undercarriage - the kit seem to be short run.

Guy Rump
Looking great! 👍

Curatorm
This model seems to be workable ^_^

Ludvík Kružík
@ Bughunter,
you're not far from the truth. During the building of my Avia BH - 9 and Avia BH - 11 kits, I received quite a lot of inquiries from Czech modellers asking if I was thinking about releasing the kit in a short run.
Unfortunately I don't have the equipment or experience to produce these kits. That is why I am sticking with my rebuilds and builds from scratch. But they say "never say never". So who knows, maybe someday... 😉

@ Guy Rump, Curatorm
Thanks for the kind words, it's a great inspiration for me to continue working on this project 🙂.

Skyhiker
Your hard work is paying off. Looking forward to seeing it all come together.

Ludvík Kružík
Skyhiker, thank you for your contribution.
And I can at least partially satisfy your curiosity. I've attached the wings with struts and horizontal tail surfaces to the fuselage.

Alec K
… and it has wings! Looking awesome 👍

Villiers de Vos
Very nice progress.